Friday, April 22, 2005

Duty Calls

What can I say except I am now one of the chosen ones. Otherwise, I have been instructed to not say anything at all. For now.

I can say that it's a non-celebrity trial. And I can say that the hours are light. And I can say I've been taking full advantage and having a little vacation.

And a vacation is what it is. It's actually the perfect vacation. You go somewhere new, see something you wouldn't have otherwise seen, and sit around for probably 4 to 5 total hours listening to the case. The other times you get to meet new people on the jury, eat lunch, have snacks, and get home at 4 PM for a nap. How does real vacation get better than that? My vacation has a built in activity: sifting through facts and listening.

The only bad thing about jury duty is that they won't let me blog in there. The deputy seemed serious about that when I asked him. He had given the old lady an indulgent smile when she asked where she should sit. No such smile for me. Instead, and I might be wrong about this, he seemed to fondle his gun.

No, that's all just kidding. Good fun at the court's expense. He wasn't fondling his gun, it was his billy club, which is still a very mean looking thing.

One scary thing about jury duty. When the judge says 'sustained,' which he typically does, the words before that are turned into un-words. It's very 1984. You're not allowed to recall those words. Most times this isn't difficult, because you have no clue what happened, so you forget the words altogether, they never happened.

The process does seem to be muddling along though.

OK. I can't say anything else. But my duty will hopefully expire soon. At which point I might just let out a big 'sustained!' to see if I can turn those days into undays. Good stuff.